Over the past few weeks, I came across a few articles, all on the topic of the speed of development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and what it could mean to us.

The first one is fromtechcrunchand it provides some compelling charts along with some predictions.

Specifically, at some point in the near future, a $1000 computer will have the processing power of ALL humans on earth collectively! AI is growing faster and faster at an exponential rate. Once this massive computing power is achieved, the next level – and who knows what it could be – will be achieved even faster. Computing power doubles every 18 months.

The second article is about robots being “intelligent” enough to replace humans. In an article inthe-american-interest.com, it is not too difficult to see the problems that the developing countries will face, when outsourced work is replaced by robots. At least one major pharmaceutical company in the US is experimenting with process robots. These software programs fill out forms and orders online, and work as if a human works at a computer. Already there are robots used in manufacturing, packaging and even as assistants in restaurants and airports.

When these robots are fitted with machine learning capabilities, they will begin to learn more and more, and re-program themselves and enhance their intelligence.

The third article talks about aGoogle “red button”to stop all AI in the event of an emergency. When artificial intelligence teaches itself how to learn untethered, it will be able to learn so fast that humanity would be hopelessly outclassed.

These are very interesting articles and have raised numerous debates, even among the best innovators. In thisarticle, Google’s Eric Schmidt argues against the predictions of Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk on the topic of artificial intelligence.

I invite your comments on this topic, since it will have vast repercussions on the decisions we make today.